In class on Tuesday we discussed the implications of incorrect data collection and I brought up the example of The United Kingdom National DNA Database (UK NDNAD, officially known as the UK National Criminal Intelligence DNA Database). The UK NDNAD was the world’s first national DNA database and now stores the genetic details of about 5.3 million people. It is currently the second largest DNA database in the world, second only to FBI’s database in the US. The NDNAD is comprised of DNA samples that are collected from crime scenes, and by everyone who is ever, “arrested on suspicion of committing a ‘recordable’ offense,” in the United Kingdom, which, as of 2006, includes infractions such as not wearing a seat belt. In 2005, the UK NDNAD held the profiles of over 585,000 children under the age of 16, since “everything from littering to skipping out on bus fares,” qualify as grounds to collect a DNA sample.
When new DNA profiles are added to the NDNAD, their information systems automatically search for matches between individuals and genetic material from crime scenes. In recent years, in attempts to solve more crimes, the database has begun doing familial searching, searching for family members of the wrongdoer if this person’s DNA is not in the database. Also, in attempts to target out violent citizens who are most likely to commit violent crimes, behavioral analysts within the UK’s Violent Crime Directorate use the information systems of the NDNAD to construct psychological profiles on people in the database based on all the information ever collected about them. These potentially violent people are then monitored.
In regards to what we discussed in class, it has been recently found that half a million names in the NDNAD have been mislabeled with incorrect names. So potentially, you could be monitored for the rest of your life and assumed violent when you have never done anything wrong. This is an obvious case of the problems that arise with incorrect information in databases and how influential and destructive these mistakes can be.
http://people.howstuffworks.com/future-crime-database.htm
